I Will (probably) Survive

Remember how I was going to be away for a while due to Fall Cleaning? I had a momentary spark of ambition to organize my house again and seem to have become lost in the process. Somewhere between emptying closets and deciding what to donate, what to sell, and what to keep we decided to buy a house and move.

We've been on the lookout for a house we would want to live in at a price we would want to pay for a long time. We've been particularly interested in short sales because we weren't in a huge hurry to move. We found a house - and everything has just taken off at lightening speed since then.

For those who don't know, the term "short sale" is misleading. There is nothing fast or speedy about purchasing a home that is worth less than what the bank loaned to purchase it. There are hoops and red tape and offers and counter offers and waiting and bidding. It usually takes 6-9 months and sometimes longer for these sorts of deals to go through.

But not in our case. We made an offer on the house, and the bank approved it about a week and a half later. And they want to close within 30 days. We sure did get lucky!! The difference between this house and other short sales is that this one is owned by the State's housing authority and the price had already been approved by the bank, so we didn't have to execute our mad hoop jumping skills.
I am still busy organizing my house. The task just exploded into being everything in every room, rather than just a cupboard and a few closets. We're organizing everything into boxes. J doesn't seem to appreciate this. He unpacks things as I pack them. He does appreciate the packing peanuts. I don't appreciate him trying to eat them. My house is a disaster - it looks like a whirlwind went through and undid everything. We are ( I am) staying up late each night to be productive with packing. I am also trying to fill some Etsy orders for hats and duvet covers. Plus I took some more family pictures. The moving thing happened when I wasn't ready for it, and it will probably be over before I get my head wrapped around the fact that it is happening. I haven't had enough sleep and my brain is as jumbled up as my house is. Trying to manage a very curious toddler while packing on my own, finding my way through a mountain of ruffles, learning how to dye fabric, editing and critiquing my pictures, thinking about inspections, planning renovations, trying to find renters for our condo, trying to come up with an insane amount of money, worried about getting financing....oy. I am very overwhelmed right now,  but know it will all be over soon and that I just might survive! And when it is all said and done, I'll have a single family dwelling with a private yard and a two car garage and I will get to do all of the fall-ish crafty things I've been desperate to try. By then, maybe all of the supplies for my projects will be on sale. yay!

Mondays are Saturdays

What a weekend!

I did my first family photo shoot.

It was exciting to be able to take pictures for someone else. This family is really a ton of fun to hang out with, so taking pictures for them was a great experience.

We went to the BYU football game. BYU won. In the last few seconds of the game. The fourth quarter was so very exciting. I don't remember having cheer-screamed that much in my entire life. Seriously. My jaw hurt. I'm surprised I didn't wear my voice out. We had SO much fun! Thank you friends who gave us free tickets!! 

My husband spent the weekend fixing cars. Mine has been acting up more than usual lately. It seems that we have problems with it every fall. They are usually minor, but still costly in mechanic fees to repair. This year we were concerned that there was something majorly wrong. Roxy has been running a bit rough. Hubbie ran his little gadget & found out that the 5th cylinder of the engine was misfiring. Yikes! to whatever that means. He was determined to figure the problem out himself, with some advice from a friend. And figure it out he did. He's so smart! He moved the spark plug casing from the 5th cylinder to another one, ran his little tester gadget again, and found that the problem had moved. Ta-dah! He just replaced the casing stuff and voila! it was fixed. It was under $100 to fix, for which we are very grateful!!

Here we are on Monday, and it feels more like a Saturday. I'm still in PJ's as I write this. I always wear PJ's when I have to clean. And since I was busy this weekend...I didn't really clean. No wonder it feels like Saturday!